Art of making velour hat-bodies by napping.



F. J. MUHLFELD. ART OF MAKING VBLOUR HAT BODIES BY NAPPING. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 20, 1911,

1,066,746. 7 Patented July 8, 1913.

Wfiriej; 2; 4% 524301 PA'IENT ()FltlOE.

FRANK J. MUHLFELD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ART OF MAKING VELOUR HAT-BODIES BY NAI-PING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J uly 8, H713.

Application filed January 20, 19,11. Serial No. 603,696.

Be it known that FRAXK J. )li'nLrnLn, a citizen of the llnitcd States. residing at $05 (lrotona Park North, in the city. county and State of New York. have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Art of Making" Velour Hat-Bodies by Napping, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

My invention relates to the manufacture of napped hat-bodies.

It consists in a process which has for its principal object the production of a hat of this character having a nap of relatively short fibers of substantially equal length. which give the hat when finished the smooth glossy appearance commonly seen in what; is known a brush or velour hat. However. as will hereafter appear, certain steps in the process are applicable to the i'rninut'acture of napped hats in general. and my invention is not therefore entirely lllllited in scope to a process which n'oduces the particular kind of hat referred to.

Napped hats. as now manufactured. are usually provided with long fur-fibers which have heretofore been made of the full length of the fll)(l found on the fur pelt. and such fibers then inserted in the hat-body by the following steps. They are first formed into a s ft layer called a nap-bat which is then applied to the previously felled hat-body and pressed and stuck thereon with a damp cloth, or by vibratory pressures. ll'hen the nap-bat is thus stuck to the previously felted hat body the two are rolled in a felting cloth dipped in scalding water and repeatedly pressed and rolled to Work the fibers of the nap-bat into the substance of the felt so as to root them therein.

Only one end of each fiber is capable. by

reason of its scaly formation, of penetrating! into the felt and adhering therein. and a previous felting! of the hat body QIHQS ll sutiicient density to prevent the fur-fibers from penetrating all the way through. and Hill? 1 thus leaves the greater portion of the ping fibers projecting from the surfa e of the felt. and forming, a flowing fur thereon. The felt is then beaten to dislodge any fibers which have not become rooted in the felt and to loosen up the free ends of the rooted fibers, and the napis then finished and can,

l when dried, be brushed and smoothed in any desired manner.

I Although a velour or bruslrhat possesses l a nap. n has not heretofore been made by a the use of a napbat. but the nap on such hrush-hats is generally formed by stitlly brushing the surface of the fur-body during l the process of felting it, such nap thus being integral with the felt itself and subsequently brought to uniform length by a. clipping operation.

l have heretofore made various experiments by clipping hats nappcd with long fibers so as to produce the appearance of a velour or bruslrhat: but it has been found that" the fibers of a long: nap are always insutiicient in number. when cut off close to the felt. to form a close velvety nap thereon: but permit the felt-body to be visible l through and between the fibers to a greater 5 or less extent. thus detracting from the apl pear-ance of the hat.

t I have discovered that by cutting the tibers to substantially the desired length bet fore sticking them to the hat-body. I am enabled by the usual sticking and napping operation to obtain a hat containing a much larger number of fibers to the unit of area.

liy using: fibers of. for instance. half the usual length. I have twice as many ends in 5 the same amount of material ready to peuc trate into the hat-body: and shorter fibers because of their relatively greater stiffness are more readily pushed into the toll. than long fibers. during the napping operation. llloreover. bv using such short fibers the great loss of fibers during the sca ding and beating operation is almost entirely avoided. because the ends of the short fibers will not become entangled as will the ends of the i lone fibers in the process as now practised. and tl'ierefore the loose fibers. which are re moved by the beating operation. will not pull with them fibers which have already 1 penetrated into the hat-body.

.\ly invention does not em race the mere r mming or levelingof fur-libers. but requires that the raw fur should, before malting it into a nap bat. be reduced to a veloualengg'lh, by which is meant a substantial shortening of the original fiber to such a length as would cause. when napped in a i felted body. a substantial increase of fibers 1 per unit of area, above the .number norill) mally rooted when unshortened fibers are used: so that the resulting napped felt more nearly resembles in appearance, an ordinary velour-hat. 1

The fur-fibers may be reduced to velourlength by any suitable means before forming them into a bat for napping, but it is preferable to clip them to substantially the desired length while they are on the fur pelt. In such operation any of the Well known fur-clipping machincs may be used.

In preparing fur-fibers for use in my invention, the clipping machine is preferably first used to level or trim the uneven ends of the fibers so as to make the fibers upon the skin of uniform length. The machine is then operated to cut the fiber to velourlength, suitable for making the short nap desired, the entire length of the fibers being eventually removed from the skin to be if desired utilized in such short sections.

I preferably divide each fiber into two or three velour-length sections, and thus secure two or three times as many napping fibers as when using the fibers of original lengtl I have also discovered that I may increase the proportion of fur-fibers to the square inch of the napped body by sticking the nap-bat upon a hat-body which has first been substantially completely felted and stiffened, and then had its superficial area abnormally increased, and thereafter allowing the same to contract.

The felted hat-body may, if desired, be stiffened with shellac or any other suitable material.

The'increase of ca which I produce to make the napping fur more dense in the finished product, is secured by a special stretching treatment of the hatbody after it is flattened, and which may be termed super-stretching. Such stretching as is incidental to the flattening operation is very small in amount. but the increase of area which I produce is deliberately effected by a stretching apparatus adapted to operate upon a hat-body and enlarge its area to the desired extentl Upon this enlarged area, I apply as many napping fibers as it will hold, which necessarily increases the density of the fur when the felt is shrunk back to substantially its original size. It will thus be understood that none of the treatment which the hat-body receives in the ordinary operation of felting and reduction to a flat form is capable of increasing the density of the fur as I desire, and which are secured by deliberately and abnormally increasing the area of the hat-body, thus enlarging it beyond the area that would be produced in the ordinary processes of manufacture.

It will be apparent that an enlargement of area is not secured in the ordinary process of manufacture, as felting operations involve a continual shrinking of the felt as long as the bod issubjected to felting, and it is therefore necessary to give the increase of area to the hat-body by suitable treatment after it has been felted and flattened. I have described this feature of extra or abnormal stretching as applied to the manufacture of hats napped with fibers clipped to velour-length, but it is obvious that this feature may be employed in the manufacture of any kind of napped hat. I have also discovered that I may reduce or obviate the defects due to the uneven stretching in the final blocking rooess, by first completely felting and sti ening the hat-body in a conical form, then stretching the same by suitable mechanism into a flat form, then sticking the fur to the body while it is in the flat form, and then aiding and permitting the body to shrink back into its conical form, preferably during the minping operation. By this means, I attain the well known advantages of the flat form of hat-body, to wit, ease of sticking and napping, while at the same time obtaining the advantages of the conical form, namely, a minimum amount of stretching during the blocking process, because the conic'albody is nearer in shape to a blocked hat.

In the drawing, Figure 1 shows a section of a completely felted hat-body in'conical form; Fig. 2 shows the same with tongs applied to its edge to act as a brimstretcher, and the shape partially changed thereby; Fig. 3 is an edge View, and Fig. 4 a plan of the hat-body stretched intofiat form; Fig. 5 is a cross section of the hatbody with a nap-bat applied thereto; and Fig. 6 is a cross section of the hat-body restored to conical form with the short nap upon its outer side.

Any suitable stretching apparatus may be used for changing the conical hat-body into the flat form shown in Fig. 3. Merely for illustration, I have shown in Fig. 2 av stretcher adapted to grasp the edge of the hat-body by tongs' a to pull the same outwardly; but any suitable mechanism for gently stretching the hat-body a into the fiat shape a may be employed; for instance, the ordinary blocking machine without the hat-block may be employed for the opera tion shown in Fig. 2., The stretching may even be done by hand if desired.

' After the completion of the stretching operation, a bat e of raw fur is laid upon the hat-body and stuck in the usual manner, as for instance, by means of a vibrating jigger,

.so that the' hat-body and hat assume the relation shown in Fig. 5. As the hat is of uniform thickness the hat-body receives on all parts of the surface substantially the same number of fur-fibers to the square inch.

To produce a but which, resembles a "elour or brush-hat, the bat is composed of an even surface.

fibers already clipped to velour-length." as above described.

During the scalding operation the hathody tends to re-assume its normal conical form. and in my inventionthis tendency is aided during the scalding operation by folding the hat-body with radial folds. in the same manner that a coni *al hat-body is often folded during any felting operation. Such folding greatly facilitates the shrinking of the hat-body back to substantially its original conical form 1 which such bodies always tend to resume when worked in hot water and the shellac stiffening softened, as in the scalding operation.

The napped hatbodv restored to its original shape with a nap thereon is shown in'Fig. 6. The hat-body is then ready for blocking to any desired shape in any usual manner.

In the preferred form of the invention, the fibers are cut into two or more sections successively while upon the skin. They may also be leveled by clipping after insertion in the felt body, as a final cutting of the nap upon such body is desirable to produce It will be understood that the treatment of a hat-body by first felting and stiffening. in a conical form, and then stretching to a flat form, and permitting the body to shrink back into conical form during a napping operation, is applicable to the manufacture of ordinary napped hats with a long flowing fur. The increasing of its area before the napping of a hat-body is also applicable to such hats, but both these features of the invention are especially useful in the manufacture of velour hats, in which it is of great importance to have the napped fibers close together.

I claim I 1. The art of making hats resembling velour or brush-hats, which comprises first materially shortening raw fur-fibers to velour-length and then napping a hat-body therewith, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. The art of making hats resembling velour or brush-hats. which comprises first materially shortening raiv fur-fibers to velourlength," forming the same into nap bats, and then sticking the napbats to hatbodies, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2-). The art of making hats resembling ye lour or brush-hats, which comprises first cutting raw fur-fibers into a plurality of vclour-length sections, and then napping a hat-body with such sections. substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. The art of making hats resembling velrzur or brush-hats, which comprises first cutting raw fur-fibers into a plurality of velour-length sections while on the skin, i

removing from the skin the sections which l'(ll'ltll!l thereon, forming such sections into nap-hats. and then sticking and scalding the bats on hat-bodies, substantially as and for the purpose described.

5. The. process of making a napped hatbody. which consists in felting and stiffening a hat-body, dividing ra w fur-fibers into several napping sections. as two or three. making nap-bats of such sectional fibers.

and napping hat-bodies with such nap-bats to normal size. substantially as and for the purpose described.

8. The improvement in the art of napping hat-bodies, which consists in mate rially shortening fur-fibers to velourlength, forming the same into a nap-bat. making a. felted and stiffened hat-body into conical form. stretching the same into sub stantially fiat form, sticking the batto the flattened hat-body, and then scalding the hatbody back into conical form, substantially as and for the purpose described.

9. The improvement in the art of nap-' ping hat-bodies, which consists in materially shortening fur-fibers to length, forming the same into a nap-bat, making a completely felted and stiffened hat-body into conical form of a shape as near as possible to the desired shape of the finished'hat. stretching the same into substantially flat form. sticking the nap-bat to the flattened hat-body, and then shrinking the hat-body back into conical form, thus avoiding as far as possible a stretching of the hatbody during the shaping. operation. and a consequent disturbanceof the relative distribution of the napping fibers.

10. The improvement in the art of napping hat-bodies, which consists in sticking .he nap-bat to an abnormally stretched hat.- body and then scalding the same and simultaneously shrinking the hat-body to normalsize. substantially as and for the purpose described.

11. The improvement in the art of napvelour- I ping hat bodies. which consists in fashioning and felting a hat-body into conical form, stretching the same into substantially fiat form, sticking the nap-bat t0 the flattened hng from the skin bearing the'fur, forming such sections into nap-bats, napping the hat bodies vyith such bats, and finally clipping or leveling the nap after it is attached to the felted hatvbodies.

'1 13. The "improvementin the art of napping hat-bodies, which consists in materially shortening raw fur-fibers to velourle'ngth, forming thesame into a, nap-bat,"

making a completely felted hat-body in conical iorm, stretching the same into substantiallyflat' form, then stretching thesame so as'abnormel'ly to increase the size of the flattened hat-body, sticking the bat to such stretched hat-body, and then scalding the hat-body back intoconical form, substzinpletely felted hat-body in conical form, stretching the same into substantially flat form, then stretching the same so as abnormally to increase the size of the flattened hat-body, sticking the bat to such-stretched hat body, and then scalding the hat-body back into conical form, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANK MUHLFELD Witnesses 2 L. LEE, THOMAS S. GRANE. 

